


Watch Me

by BeautifulBlues



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Voyeurism, wanking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-30
Updated: 2013-03-30
Packaged: 2017-12-06 22:47:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/741049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeautifulBlues/pseuds/BeautifulBlues
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt: Flatmates, but they don't share a room. Character 1 often masturbates with the door to his room open. Character 2 is uncomfortable about this and doesn't know to handle the situation. He starts to suspect that character 1 wants him to see, and actually - he's not totally averse to watching.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Watch Me

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Alby's Wanking Comment Fest [Here](http://alby-mangroves.livejournal.com/23063.html?thread=570647#t570647)
> 
> Endless thanks to hms_seth for the excellent & speedy beta job.

The first time it happened, they’d been living together for a week. They’d been best friends throughout university since their first meeting (the infamous night in freshers when Arthur made fun of Merlin’s ears and Merlin, ever the gentleman, promptly punched him in the face), so when they both decided to stay in London to work for a year before thinking about postgrad courses, it only made sense to share a flat. At this point in time, though, Arthur was beginning to question the decision-making paradigm.

Having been out for a few drinks with Lance and the boys the night before, Arthur had enjoyed a well-deserved lie-in before crawling out of bed to venture for a cup of tea. He gazed blearily in through Merlin’s open door for a few moments as he walked past, absently thinking he might make a pot so that Merlin could have some too, and it wasn’t until he reached the entrance to the kitchen that he froze, realising what he’d just seen.

Through uni, it had been Arthur who’d had an open door policy – a piece of scrap cardboard constantly wedging his door ajar so that an endless stream of people could wander in and out as they pleased, offering and receiving conversation, jokes, cups of tea. Merlin’s room, on the other hand, was more closed off. Arthur had joked that his door reflected his friendships – it took you a while to get in, but once you were inside you were in a constant loop of Firefly marathons and never allowed to leave. Merlin politely informed him that his comparison failed, but the point remained the same.

So when they’d moved into the flat and - somewhere in the middle of deciding whose books should go on which shelf and bickering over claiming spots on the sofa - Merlin started leaving his bedroom door open most of the time, Arthur chalked it up as somewhat of a personal victory. 

He hadn’t, though, expected that: to walk past Merlin’s doorway and catch sight of him sprawling diagonally across his bed, utterly nude and touching himself. Now that the image was burnt onto his retinas, Arthur couldn’t help himself from examining it. He clutched the kitchen counter as he thought back over those lips a breath apart, that blush not just high on his cheekbones but also colouring his chest, the hand moving slowly, leisurely, seeming to intentionally tease as Merlin pulled himself off.

Arthur turned the kettle on and gulped loudly, trying to swallow down his own embarrassment at the same time as the ill-advised crush he’d been (not quite) successfully suppressing for years.

He managed to only awkwardly adjust himself once while making his cup of tea, and then walked swiftly back to his room with his head down. He did not offer Merlin a cup of tea, and he most definitely did not jerk himself off.

Well, he did, but it was much later – it would have happened anyway and had absolutely nothing to do with the mental image that refused to go away.

For the next few days Arthur tensed up the second he saw Merlin, constantly sure that ‘the incident’ would be mentioned, discussed, or laughed about. He was half-convinced that Merlin would accuse him of being a disgusting pervert, and spent more time than was necessary creating an ironclad defence full of “I didn’t look on purpose”s and “Well if you will leave your door wide open”s.

However, it never came up. Merlin carried on like normal, only side-eyeing Arthur slightly when he caught a particularly unsubtle suspicious glance. After a few days Arthur decided it must have been a one-off, an accident, and put it safely away behind that locked door in his brain labelled ‘Merlin’.

Then it happened again.

This time it was early evening, Arthur going to grab his phone from his room, and Merlin was nearly fully clothed. His trousers and boxers were low around his hips, his t-shirt hitched up as he quickly jerked his exposed cock. He bit down hard on his lower lip, and Arthur bit his own in response as he faltered momentarily in the doorway. He tried to force his blush down as he hurried the rest of the way to his room, not even trying to pretend to himself that he wasn’t suddenly painfully hard.

The next time, the fingers of Merlin’s left hand were drawing trails through his pre-come whilst two of the fingers of his right were slick and curling into his arsehole. Arthur worked hard to hold back a moan as he tried to stop watching them pumping in and out.

Before long, Arthur found himself finding excuses to walk between his bedroom and the rest of the flat, hoping to catch even the briefest glimpse of Merlin touching himself, bringing himself off. He tried not to watch, tried not to let it affect him, but every time he found himself transfixed for slightly longer, lurking in the relative safety of the doorway, before retreating to his room and wanking furiously (with the door carefully closed, for fuck’s sake) to the memory of Merlin’s hands, cock, teeth, lips, hole, moans, oh god those moans…

Arthur’s theories about Merlin’s open door varied wildly. _What an idiot_ , he sometimes thought, _to assume I won’t walk past while he’s wanking. He’s just careless. He’s thoughtless. He doesn’t care. He’s open. He thinks it’s normal. He thinks I’m blind. He thinks I’m deaf. He thinks I won’t watch. He… Wants me to watch? No._

As time went on Arthur got more and more careless as temptation took over him. Each time he saw Merlin’s hands on himself he lingered slightly longer, and started to touch himself through his trousers before he could manage to tear his eyes away and force his feet to move.

He didn’t know what was wrong with himself. He couldn’t stop watching his best friend wank.

He supposed it was inevitable that he would be caught. He hadn’t anticipated the reaction though.

It was a Thursday – Arthur had started to come home early from work on Thursdays in hopes of getting a show. He shut the door as quietly as he could and toed off his shoes, padding his way down the corridor to his favourite vantage point. He stood and stared as Merlin’s hand pumped up and down, his head thrown back and his eyes closed. He was as naked as he had been the very first time, and Arthur couldn’t help but be hypnotised by the wide expanses of pale skin stretched across taut muscle.

Arthur let his hand slip beneath his trousers and boxers, glad for the loose waistband that allowed space for his wrist as he took himself in hand. He stroked softly up and down the sensitive skin of his dick, and a moan escaped his lips. He froze, flushing instantly and unable to move his hand from his pants as Merlin looked up, eyebrows raised as he slowly appraised Arthur.

For a moment neither of them moved, their eyes locked in a standoff as their hands clutched their genitals. Arthur was just about to run, ready to bluster through bullshit excuses for hours on end when Merlin released his patented devilish grin. He spread his legs further, giving Arthur a better view, and started moving his hand again. A single eyebrow lifted in Arthur’s direction – teasing, inviting. Arthur couldn’t help but groan loudly when Merlin finally spoke, the arousal clear in his husky voice:

“Watch me.”


End file.
